IAVM’s Introduction to Venue Safety & Security equips leadership, event safety & security staff, guest services teams, and meeting planners & organizers with the necessary know-how to effectively protect their respective facilities. Developed by seasoned event safety and security professionals, this one-day event primes attendees with an action plan outline, as well as creative and innovative strategies that secure all facilities, engage front-line teams, and provide the best in guest services and customer experience.

This one-of-a-kind experience is something you and your staff will not want to miss!

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Registration Now Open!

Location: Boch Center | Boston, MA

Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Time: 9:00 AM – 5:45 PM ET

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COURSES INCLUDE:

Creating Effective Event Briefing Documentation
This session covers the fundamentals of creating effective event briefings, incorporating daily training, practical application of situation awareness, and post orders.

Duty of Care and Incident Reporting
An introduction to premise liability (duty of care), theory, terminology, and tools. Participants will learn how to apply the “fundamentals of risk management” and document incidents should/when they occur.

Fundamentals of Risk Management
Participants will learn how to apply an “all hazards” risk management approach into their venue and area of responsibility.

Building Your Security Culture
Focusing on developing diverse cultures surrounding themselves around safety, security, and heightened levels of awareness, participants will learn how to build elite teams within their organizations. This session will help train leadership, front line teams, and young professionals to forecast and expect those unexpected challenges in the future and provide the tools to mitigate the risks our world delivers daily.

Daily Dilemmas: From Restrooms to Needles
From transgender restrooms to suspicious persons and hypodermic needle use, venues are facing new ethical dilemmas. Participants will team up and be faced with real (and some not-so-real) scenarios that present a multitude of ethical and legal challenges. The solution may feel like the right thing to do, but how will your attorney respond to your solution?

Safety & Security Town Hall
Be ready to meet, greet, and get to know your fellow attendees in an engaging town hall meeting. Identify specific security challenges and develop a baseline of best practices to assure teams provide the best in safety and security. Great opportunity to identify programming for our Introduction to safety and security.

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The IAVM Mentor Connector Program is getting ready to launch the Fall 2022 Cycle.  If you would like to learn more about becoming a Mentor or Mentee to further your professional development, please join our informational webinar Thursday, September 29 at 2pm ET.

Click here to register for the webinar.

Mentor Connector creates the opportunity for an experienced professional (Mentor) to provide guidance and encouragement to a member who has an identified professional development need (Mentee).

Anyone at any stage of their career can be a Mentor or Mentee. There are no restrictions or qualifications, you just need be a member of IAVM.

Go to https://iavm.org/career-learning/mentor/ for more information and to apply. Applications are due October 7, 2022.

By Nicole Pitman

The Performing Arts Center’s (PAC) Chris Miller is set to retire from his managing director role this October, after six and a half years.

Throughout that time, Miller managed the PAC’s $3 million annual operating budget and oversaw nearly 400 annual public and university events, hosting approximately 75,000 event attendees annually.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with the incredible PAC staff during my tenure and support our wonderful community arts organization clients and their events,” Miller said. “The unique partnership between the university, city of SLO, and the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center that created and sustains this world-class facility is a visionary model for other communities to emulate. I’m so grateful for the outstanding community support that the PAC enjoys and to have had the opportunity to facilitate its impact on our local artists and audience members over the past six years.”

During his tenure, the PAC saw financial success with operating surpluses each fiscal year, the only exception being the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. The PAC’s operating reserve balance has doubled, and nearly $2 million has been added to its Major Maintenance/Capital Renewal Fund.

Even with these successes, Miller is most proud of how the PAC staff overcame the significant challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the severe financial impact of no live events during fiscal year 2020-21, the staff pivoted to provide critical support for pandemic response and testing on campus, and quickly developed the capacity to produce complex virtual events, including a concert series featuring local artists.

The PAC staff worked with San Luis Obispo City leadership to host the memorial service for fallen San Luis Obispo Police Detective Luca Benedetti – demonstrating the role the PAC plays in the life of the community, not only as a venue for world-class artists but as a home for its most important events.

Miller joined the PAC staff in May 2016, succeeding Ron Regier, who retired as the founding managing director earlier that year. Miller relocated to San Luis Obispo from Seattle, where he enjoyed a 30-year career in various performing arts and venue management positions.

From 2003 to 2015, Miller was the general manager for McCaw Hall at Seattle Center, the 2,900-seat home of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera. He oversaw the hall’s opening after a $127 million renovation, hosted nearly 400 events and more than 350,000 patrons every year during which time he built a $3 million capital renewal fund while achieving net operating surpluses each year. Prior to McCaw Hall, Miller served as theatre operations manager at Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony, for two years. Prior to that he spent 15 years as Pacific Northwest Ballet’s company manager and director of operations.

Miller has served the performing arts venue industry as vice chair and chair of the Performing Arts Sector Committee of IAVM as well as Performing Arts Sector representative on the IAVM board of directors. He is co-founder and co-chair of the Central Coast Coalition of Arts Leaders. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama from the University of Washington, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College.

His last day on campus will be Oct. 14.

Miller and his wife, Barbara plan to remain on the Central Coast for some time after retirement but expect to eventually return to the Pacific Northwest at some point, as family obligations warrant.

Ryan Gruss, current director of Patron Services and Campus Ticketing, will serve as interim managing director starting Oct. 15.

Nicole Pitman is Graphic Designer & Interim Marketing Manager for Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo
Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California.

By R.V. Baugus

The cover page of the September 2022 Manage HR Magazine “Learning and Development Issue” features Venue Solutions Group’s Advantage Training and their revolutionary approach to impacting employee engagement and production. VSG Advantage Training was named Top Emerging Learning and Development Services Company by HR Magazine’s editors and readers and duly recognized in the feature article.

You might also recognize the charming face on the cover as that of Richard Andersen, CVE, VSG Chief Illuminations Officer and a Past IAVM President (Chair). As our good friend shared, the profile is one that will “help our industry see as a group we are all making an impact even outside of the venue management world.” Andersen, along with fellow training partner Russ Simons, VSG Chief Listening Officer and Managing Partner, bring decades of experience, motivation, and philosophy to their approach of first understanding and then meeting client needs.

Indeed, our members are making such an impact, and it begins with organizations such as Venue Solutions Group and their Advantage Training that delivers leading-edge programming covering a comprehensive list of organizational needs, helping create meaningful change through rich “aha moments.” Participants are engaged through the latest in adult education techniques, customized activities, and real-life examples.

To give you an idea of the success of the program, VSG Advantage Training earned top honors in the 2022 list of Top Emerging Learning and Development Services Companies recognized by Manage HR Magazine.

The lead-up to the article notes that Andersen “encourages readers, just like he encourages his clients, to see the power of human potential and the opportunity to positively impact lives and organizational culture through VSGAT’s unique approach to training.”

“Central to Andersen and Simons’ approach for VSG Advantage Training’s game-changing programs was to build their model on the best materials available, while incorporating the latest in adult education techniques,” the magazine added. “Backed by their industry knowledge, their work is largely focused on illuminating human potential and inspiring program participants to achieve excellence by equipping people with the tools they need to grow. Patrick Scanlon, Vice President of Guest Experience for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Rock Entertainment Group summed it up best. ‘The VSG approach was simply a great learning session for ALL involved and quite frankly a game-changer for me.’”

“We love building around self-discovery, the Confucius approach of ‘tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, let me do and I understand,’” Andersen said.

Congratulations Richard and Russ! To read the article, click here.

By Enzo Carannante

The Siouxland (IA) Expo Center is getting a new name as a result of a multi-year partnership with Seaboard Triumph Foods. The venue is being renamed the Seaboard Triumph Foods Expo Center, effective immediately, according to OVG360, whose Global Partnerships’ team brokered the deal. OVG360 provides booking and management services and sales efforts for the Expo Center.

The naming rights agreement includes a variety of assets such as a new name and logo for the facility, branding integration throughout the Seaboard Triumph Foods Expo Center space, and other internal signage to be unveiled at a later date. Transition to the new name has been completed.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Seaboard Triumph Foods,” said Dirk Lohry, President of the Expo Center Board. “With Siouxland’s strong history in the stockyards, working with a community partner that shares our values and history is important to us.”

Since opening in September 2020, the Seaboard Triumph Foods Expo Center has hosted over 1,500 events, including the Siouxland Volleyball Showdown, Midwest Pool Tournament, Home Builders Association of Greater Siouxland’s Home Show, Heartland States Basketball Championship, and more. The Expo Center is also home to the Sioux City Parks and Recreation Department.

“This is only the beginning for the expansion of our roots in the Siouxland community,” said Frank Koekkoek Jr., Vice President and General Manager of Seaboard Triumph Foods. “Our hopes are to continue to support the community that our team members reside and work in, and this partnership does exactly that.”

“We are excited to be forming a long-term Naming Rights partnership with Seaboard Triumph Foods,” said Oak View Group’s Meghan Carannante, OVG360 Global Partnerships Director. “Seaboard Triumph is dedicated and committed to the Siouxland community, and we are eager to be working alongside a well-respected community partner.”

Enzo Carannante is Assistant General Manager & Director of Marketing Tyson Events Center / Fleet Farm Arena & Orpheum Theatre